Someone asked whether years spent in Canada on a work permit before becoming a PR could be added to time spent as a PR when calculating the 730-day (2-year) residency requirement for renewing a PR card.
What the thread clarified:- PR card renewal only looks at the most recent 5-year window from the renewal date — not your entire history in Canada. So time spent in Canada before you became a PR generally will not count once it falls outside that rolling 5-year window by the time you renew.
- Time on a work permit (before PR) is relevant for citizenship applications, not for PR card renewal. Citizenship has separate rules that can credit some pre-PR time in Canada, but PR renewal is strictly about physical presence within the most recent 5-year period as a PR.
The practical takeaway: don't assume pre-PR work permit time will help you meet the 730-day PR renewal requirement — it depends entirely on whether that time falls within your most recent rolling 5-year window at the time of renewal, and pre-PR time is more relevant to citizenship eligibility than to PR card renewal.